Solar Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

Solar Batteries or ‘Battery Energy Storage Systems’ (BESS) are a new phenomenon for most people and may require explanation for the uninitiated.

The advantages of solar photovoltaics are well known, for example the ‘reduced running costs’, the ‘increased home value’, and ‘improved BER rating’ as well as ‘reducing the environmental impact’ of your home.

What the domestic solar battery does is to allow the homeowner or business person to manage their electricity consumption by capturing the electricity produced for use at a more advantageous time.

A true prosumer has a battery storage system working seamlessly in tandem with their solar PV panels to maximise the amount of energy consumed.

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

In this article we want to compare a few different makes of domestic battery energy storage systems so that homeowners in particular will have more information once they have decided to invest in solar PV.

There are lots of different solar batteries available in Ireland, but your solar PV installer is possibly offering you one of four battery energy storage systems as follows –

Sonnen GmbH
Weco
BYD
Pylontech

Sonnen Battery

Sonnen are the industry leader as far as we are concerned with over 100,000 installations in Germany alone, and these excellent batteries have been available in Ireland for years.

The specifications include (sonnen hybrid 9.53);

10 years or 10,000 cycles warranty
20 years design life

90% depth of discharge
up to 98% battery efficiency

available in modules of 2.5 kWhrs, which are stackable up to 15 kWhrs depending on your electricity consumption

Weco Battery

Weco FZE LLC claim on their website to have 900+ happy customers. Based in the UAE with production capacity in China, Weco are the new-kid-on-the-block in solar storage. Time will tell on the quality of production and supply-chain values.

The specifications include (ESS 5k3);

10,000 cycles warranty

95% depth-of-discharge depending on configuration

available in modules of 5 kWhrs which are stackable up to 5 modules in parallel per cluster.

BYD Battery Box

BYD are an established electric vehicle manufacturer and battery producer who have just announced projected exports of 250,000 units to Europe this year (2022).

The company are in discussions with Apple to supply batteries for Apple’s new car project.

Likewise, BYD are the battery partner of choice for companies like Fronius Solar and are also compatible with Solis and other inverters.

The specifications include (BYD Battery Box LVS model);

10 year warranty

100% depth-of-discharge under test conditions

95% efficiency rating

available in modules of 4 kWhrs which are stacked in a tower configuration with up to 6 modules, or in a different configuration for larger applications.

Pylontech Battery

Pylon Technology Ltd, the company are said to have over 350,000 battery installations worldwide and have been the value battery of choice for installers for a number of years.

In Ireland, the main models available are the US2000B or US3000 which has up to a nominal 3.5 kWhrs per module.

10 year warranty (recently increased from 5 years)

6,000 cycles estimated life-time.

15 years design life

90% depth-of-discharge

available in up to 3.5 kWhrs modules which are stackable up to 8 modules

Battery specifications in summary

Sonnen (hybrid 9.53)	Weco (ESS 5k3)	BYD Battery Box (LVS Model)	Pylontech (US3000)
10,000 cycles or 10 years	10,000 cycles or 10 years	10 years	6,000 cycles or 10 years
90% dod	95% dod	100% dod	90% dod
98% efficiency	unspecified	95% efficiency	unspecified
2.5 kWhr modules	5 kWhr modules	4 kWhr modules	3.5 kWhr modules

Exclusive technology	Compatible with various inverters	Compatible with various inverters	Compatible with various inverters

Whether you have already installed a solar PV system which you want to upgrade with a battery, or you are looking for a complete new solar PV system, Solar Now work with a number of Safe Electric registered installation partners offering any one of the above battery solutions for your home or business.

Please Contact Us now to discuss your options.